Trial Set For Oklahoma Mom In Child Neglect, Sexual Abuse Case

A trial date was set this week for one of the Monroe parents accused of multiple counts of child neglect, sexual abuse and enabling sexual abuse, according to LeFlore County District Court records.

District Judge Jon Sullivan ordered a mental evaluation for the other parent, the 62-year-old father, which effectively stays his case until the evaluation is completed and the court holds a competency hearing.

The 40-year-old mother of the nine children is scheduled for trial at 9 a.m. July 16, according to court records.

Both parents were formally arraigned Wednesday.

The Times Record is not reporting the names of the parents so as not to identify the children, because the newspaper does not generally identify the victims of alleged sexual abuse.

Both parents are charged with nine counts of child neglect. The father is additionally charged with three counts of child sexual abuse. The mother is additionally charged with three counts of enabling the child sexual abuse.

The children ranged in age from 3-17.

In a Feb. 9 preliminary hearing, one of the defendants' teen daughters testified that her father had had sex with her twice a week over the 85-week period since the family moved to Monroe. Another teen daughter testified her father had had sex with her once or twice daily except for a two-week period after she gave birth to a stillborn child. The infant, she said, was delivered by her father and later buried on the parents' 25-acre property. A search by investigators for the body yielded no remains.

District Attorney's Office investigators Jody Thompson and Travis Saulsberry, DHS Family Services worker Amanda Lovett and the first foster parent assigned to six of the children testified that when authorities located and seized the children on Oct. 21, 2011, they were filthy; smelled extremely bad; were pale; wore ill-fitting, also filthy clothing; had broken and decayed teeth; and were infested with lice.

According to testimony by Advanced Registered Nurse Practitioner Carol Weddle, during a November examination, the child who had delivered the stillborn baby was found to again be pregnant.

Following the preliminary hearing, Special Judge Jeff Singer raised the bonds for the parents from $275,000 to $300,000 each — $25,000 per felony count. The parents have been held in the LeFlore County Detention Center since their Nov. 1 arrests.